Oval Chainrings

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Mike2580
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:56 am

by Mike2580

Guys, long time lurker here.

Im building a S5 Disc with a Cane Creek crank. Normally i ride with Rotor QXL rings, now i want to try some other high-end oval rings.
Does anyone know the shifting quality of the Carbon- Ti rings or the Absolute Black ring with a Etap setup.

Thanxs for the help.

Nefarious86
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by Nefarious86

Etap + ovals = go 1x.....
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TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

^ Truth.

NoMütze
Posts: 100
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 7:39 am
Location: austria

by NoMütze

well cant comment on eTap, but using absoluteBlack compact 50/34 oval rings on my UltegraDi2 setup.
Shifting front is equal to/better with the Ovals...the big ring has same decent shifting ramps cncD on the back...

not sure why 1x... should be better in this road scenario...

TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

NoMütze wrote:
Fri Feb 01, 2019 9:15 am
well cant comment on eTap, but using absoluteBlack compact 50/34 oval rings on my UltegraDi2 setup.
Shifting front is equal to/better with the Ovals...the big ring has same decent shifting ramps cncD on the back...

not sure why 1x... should be better in this road scenario...

It's just that the temporary overshift on the eTap FD has a tendency to throw the chain over the big ring on upshifts. This even happens with round rings unless your yaw, derailleur height and high limit are set within the tightest range/tolerances. I couldn't get eTap to shift with Q-Rings reliably on my Emonda(s), but they functioned well enough on my Swiss Cross. I used a clamp-adapter on the Swiss Cross, so rotating the clamp adjusted the fore/aft and also the lateral position of the FD slightly. This might have helped a little bit. I did try using angled shims on the Emonda, but they didn't really help.

Shimano's FDs handle ovals way, way better, though I'm surprised you'd say front shifting with AbsoluteBlack rings is on par with Shimano's own rings. There's always going to be some lag or chunkiness to an oval's front shift unless your timing is perfect.

Mike2580
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:56 am

by Mike2580

Shifiting is not the problem with the setup. My Argon 18 with Etap and QXL worked perfect.
I just want a high-end oval chain ring combination, i can go with Rotor again......but that,s not really high end.
No one with Carbon-ti rings?????

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Kayrehn
Posts: 1776
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 6:06 pm

by Kayrehn

Mike2580 wrote:Shifiting is not the problem with the setup. My Argon 18 with Etap and QXL worked perfect.
I just want a high-end oval chain ring combination, i can go with Rotor again......but that,s not really high end.
No one with Carbon-ti rings?????
Mostly ok but a bit of care is good to prevent the occasional overshifting, basically trying to time the shift for when the oval goes from flat to rounded end on the upward pull of the pedal on the drive side. Being too cautious and slow while shifting isn't good too. Work best when the chain is on 15t cog, any smaller and chances of overshifting chain drop goes up exponentially. I added the bracing tab thing on the FD and that helps immensely.

Short answer - not totally reliable. But it's bling. Image

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1415chris
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Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 8:59 am
Location: Surrey UK

by 1415chris

I cannot speak for Carbon Ti and AB, but I have been using QXL with E-tap for two seasons and the last one with Osymetric chainrings.
With the shim and careful FD adjustment I don't have any overshifts nor chain drops. Apart the situation when the chain is on the big ring and two biggest cogs, when on the bumps, chain has a tendency to travel from big to small. But this is understandable taking into consideration extreme shape of the big chainring and not advisable on any setup anyway. Shifting is very crisp, fast, overall better than with QXL, where I experienced overshifting from time to time. Having said that, I didn't use any shims for FD at that point.
With Osymetrics it is necessary, due to more extreme shape, to put FD backwards, in the same time, due to shim's wedge shape, the FD's cage was also a tad lowered.
Last edited by 1415chris on Fri Feb 01, 2019 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Vermu
Posts: 345
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:39 am

by Vermu

Got AB with mech red and shifting is better than stock rings.


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Nefarious86
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Joined: Sun May 25, 2014 4:57 am

by Nefarious86


NoMütze wrote:
not sure why 1x... should be better in this road scenario...
Because after constant fine tuning to stop the over shifting over the big ring it still had a tendency to throw the chain over the big ring mid shift even with the cage rubbing and no shifting in the rear... Not fun, swap to Ui2 and I think I've had one over shift in 1000km and that was because I was hammering the rear shifting and the same time to try and make it fail...
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bm0p700f
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by bm0p700f

Carbon Ti rings are very oval I dont use them my self as oval for me mean 1x and Carbon Ti road rings are not 1x. Why qould oval mean1x well it doesn't but because the bikes I have 1x11 on is the Look and I pulled the FD cable rather than replace it and its 1x now. The commutor is 1x because the 11 speed ergo's I bought cheap had a broken left hand paddle so that came of. there you 1x so I figured on Oval. Incidently the Rotor Q ring I use on the comutor bike is not oval enough. I barley notice it. The Garbaruk ring on the Look is quite oval and I notice that. The Carbon Ti oval ring are even more extreme not sure if that a good or a bad thing. One day I fiund out.

Wormiez
Posts: 63
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2016 12:46 am

by Wormiez

Kayrehn wrote:
Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:41 am
Mike2580 wrote:Shifiting is not the problem with the setup. My Argon 18 with Etap and QXL worked perfect.
I just want a high-end oval chain ring combination, i can go with Rotor again......but that,s not really high end.
No one with Carbon-ti rings?????
Mostly ok but a bit of care is good to prevent the occasional overshifting, basically trying to time the shift for when the oval goes from flat to rounded end on the upward pull of the pedal on the drive side. Being too cautious and slow while shifting isn't good too. Work best when the chain is on 15t cog, any smaller and chances of overshifting chain drop goes up exponentially. I added the bracing tab thing on the FD and that helps immensely.

Short answer - not totally reliable. But it's bling. Image

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
What bracing tab did you add to the Etap?

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Kayrehn
Posts: 1776
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 6:06 pm

by Kayrehn

I meant the angled shims for the FD, sorry I didn't exactly know what to call it. This blog https://secondnaturecycling.wordpress.c ... -etapular/ calls it the support wedge.

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tabl10s
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Joined: Wed Aug 23, 2017 5:40 am

by tabl10s

Mike2580 wrote:
Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:22 am
Shifiting is not the problem with the setup. My Argon 18 with Etap and QXL worked perfect.
I just want a high-end oval chain ring combination, i can go with Rotor again......but that,s not really high end.
No one with Carbon-ti rings?????
Rotor Quarbon's aren't high-end? I have them on two bikes with no problems. I have Carbon-Ti round and have looked at their ovals.
Last edited by tabl10s on Sat Feb 02, 2019 5:49 am, edited 2 times in total.
2015 Pinarello F8: 13.13lbs/5.915kg(w/Roval 64's). Sold.
2016 Rca: 11.07lbs/5.048kg.
2015 Rca. 11.15 lbs(w/Roval CLX 32's)
2015 Rca/NOS(sold).
2018 S-Works SL6 Ultralight 12.03lbs(w/Roval CLX 50's)

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Mike2580
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2019 7:56 am

by Mike2580

Sure the Rotor carbon rings are high end, but there as heavy as normal chainrings. little bit overpriced if you asked me.
Just hoping the shifting of the carbon ti shift the way the QXL rings do.
Never had troubles with overshifiting with my old setup. The only thing that was bad, was small/ small or big/ big.

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